Older than the Vanco Duet is the Sailor on display today. Everything on it points out at the 1930s as the production date. The pen is a flat top Japanese eyedropper inspired by the fashion set by the Parker Duofold, as was often the case in Japan at the time. It is made of ebonite and is coated with urushi lacquer.

There is an inscription on the pen body: "Sailor / Fountain Pens / PAT. O. 116315", together with the logo of the company.

The nib –the real protagonist of this story— is made of 14 K gold and is labeled as size 30. This number does not say much –or anything at all— about its actual size. If fact, it is very modest in dimensions: its total length is 23 mm, perfectly comparable to sizes 2 or 1 nibs by Pilot at the time.

The size 30 nib by Sailor.

The beak-shaped point of the lower end of the nib.

Its point is carefully cut. On the lower side –regular writing— the point takes the form of a bird beak with a very thin ending, thus drawing a very fine line. The upper side, on the contrary, is cut as a broad nib. The writing sample shows the final effects of these two points.

Writing sample of the double sided nib by Sailor. The square on the paper is 5x5 mm2.

5 comments:

Starting 2018 with a stunning nib. Amazing find, thanks for sharing this. Following the previous article on the 'Duet' nib, I contacted Pablo of FPNibs who created a nib based on the idea. A very useful and practical nib that offers an eef line, and when flipped over, the reverse side offers a wider, fine to medium line for underlining and headings.